The subject matter disclosed herein relates to cooling parts of a turbine engine, and, more specifically, to cooling shroud segments of the gas turbine engine.
In general, gas turbines combust a mixture of compressed air and fuel to produce hot combustion gases. The combustion gases may flow through one or more turbines to generate power to drive a load, such as an electrical generator and/or a compressor. Within the gas turbines, the combustion gases may flow through one or more stages of nozzles and blades. The turbine nozzles may include circumferential rings of vanes that direct the combustion gases to the blades. As the combustion gases flow past the blades, the combustion gases drive the blades to rotate, thereby driving the load. The hot combustion gases may be contained using circumferential shrouds surrounding the blades, which also aid in directing a flow of the hot combustion gases through the gas turbine engine. Unfortunately, it is difficult to cool certain regions of the shrouds, such as intermediate seal regions between shroud segments. As a result, the shroud may be subject to hot spots and high thermal stresses in these regions.